Glorious wildflowers and agaves in Jenny Stocker’s garden
Spring in Austin is glorious this year, and especially so in my friend Jenny Stocker’s garden. The Rock Rose blogger cultivates a gravel garden of mostly Texas native wildflowers and grasses sown among woody lilies like agave and yucca, accented with structural rockwork she and her husband, David, did mainly on their own.
Last Friday her front door was enveloped in the sweet fragrance and twining embrace of a yellow star jasmine — a heavenly welcome.
The front courtyard, awash with bluebonnets, dianthus, and other flowering plants, makes a lovely spot for a table for two.
These plants are all growing in gravelly soil and mulched with gravel. A dry stream moves excess water from Texas rainstorms out of the space.
Filament-encircled agave
In the sunny back garden, where plants grow in gravelly crevices, their roots kept cool under flagstone, it’s even more glorious, with red poppies glowing among cool yellows, whites, purples, and blues.
Red Flanders poppies have special significance to Jenny, who is British-born.
Beautiful reds amid fresh, green foliage
The bees like them too.
Perched on the edge of the swimming pool you can see multiple garden rooms thanks to doorways in the chunky stucco walls that define Jenny’s garden.
The garden between house and pool. Can you imagine looking out on this view every day?
A medium-height wall divides the sunken garden and pool area from the potager and garden shed, at right.
Another view of the slant-roof garden shed as glimpsed over the wall. Structural plants like spineless prickly pear and squid agave give form to the garden when the wildflowers are done.
Yellow columbines, pink Gulf Coast penstemon, and orange California poppies
At back of the sunken garden along the fence, a white Lady Banks rose is ebbing but still lovely. You can see it in full bloom in a late-March blog post I wrote about Jenny’s garden.
One more
From the potager, looking over the medium-height wall — another beautiful view of the sunken garden. I adore a framed view through a doorway.
Larkspur in bloom with tall verbena
The purple is vibrant against the sandy-colored stucco of the garden shed.
Love-in-a-mist
A living bouquet of wildflowers: blackfoot daisy, pink evening primrose, verbena, and a yellow daisy.
Poppies gone to seed are nearly as good as poppies in flower.
When they turn brown, they make long-lasting vase fillers as well.
Porch steps provide display space for some of Jenny’s beautiful containers…
…like this one.
Mock orange trained along one wall…
…makes a pretty backdrop for a pedestal planter with a cluster of small agaves. The central one is sending up a bloom stalk.
An agave in bloom is a bittersweet moment for a gardener. The agave will die after it finishes blooming, but it goes out in a blaze of glory with a tall, showy, and long-lasting bloom spike.
Jenny has plenty of smaller agaves waiting in the wings for their chance to shine.
Thanks, Jenny, for sharing your garden with me again. If you’re a garden blogger who is registered to come to Austin Garden Bloggers Fling, you’ll be visiting Jenny’s garden soon too. Make sure you look for the agave’s bloom spike to see how much it’s grown.
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So beautiful! I love the larkspur and Blackfoot daisies. They are two of my favs. I’m jealous of her poppies. I can’t get them to come back. Thanks for sharing these. The pictures were such a nice respite from a busy day!
I’m glad you enjoyed them, Beth. —Pam
I always enjoy the opportunity to see Jenny’s lovely garden. I wish my own gravel areas spawned such treasures!
She’s got the knack, doesn’t she? —Pam
I am so looking forward to flinging in Jennys’ garden ! And I’m pulling for overcast skies to facilitate beautiful photos like these !
Fingers crossed! —Pam
I just love the way her garden is so full and beautiful. I also struggle with poppies. I wish they would like someplace in my garden.
They seem to love gravel gardens. —Pam
Seems like there are visual delights every place you look in Jenny’s garden. Beautiful images, Pam.
Thanks, Sherry. Jenny’s garden is a marvel. —Pam
Love this garden, I really appreciate the pics. I will be looking at them for months so I can get ideas for my garden. Thank you.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the pics, Doris! —Pam
I love all of these ideas. I need to see what will grow in my NC mountains at 4000ft elevation
Have you ever read the blog Outside Clyde, Cindy? It’s by a gardener who lives on a mountaintop outside of Asheville. It may give you some good planting ideas too. —Pam
I’d like to subscribe to your blog. I wasn’t finding the link, so I’m reaching out here. Good stuff!
Rita, thanks for your interest in subscribing! You can do that by clicking on the black-and-teal “Follow” button in the lower-right corner of the screen, or by clicking on “Subscribe via Email” in my sidebar under my bio and photo. —Pam